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Vulkan backend

Vulkan backend is part of the gpu module. It enables drawing Blenders UI using Vulkan. It doesn't (and isn't planned or viable) to use Vulkan for running Cycles.

Command line parameters

--debug-gpu-vulkan-local-read: Force enabling VK_EXT_dynamic_rendering_local_read extension even if the platform is listed to not use it. This allows checking changes done to the implementation on devices that normally doesn't use the extension due to performance regressions.

Compile directives

In CMAKE there are several compilation directives specific for the Vulkan backend.

WITH_VULKAN_BACKEND will enable/disable compiling Blender with Vulkan support. Mainly for Apple this is turned off.

WITH_VULKAN_MOLTEN_VK is still very experimental. Current state is that it can draw a UI, but is not usable at all as HiDPI isn't supported and due to many limitations in MoltenVK the 3D viewport is only able to draw wireframes and outlines.

WITH_RENDERDOC is shared with OpenGL, but specific for Vulkan it adds more features like vertex/fragment/compute step by step debugging and colored debug groups.

WITH_GPU_RENDER_TESTS_VULKAN also include vulkan tests when performing the GPU render tests. This is turned off by default as the tests currently can hang and fail.

Components

Vulkan backend consists out of several components that work together.

  • Memory manager
  • Data management, data conversion, lifetime management
  • Shader compilation
  • Shader resources/binding
  • Render graph
  • Rendering
  • Threading
  • Device management

Extensions

Vulkan works with extensions. Extensions are delivered by the GPU driver. Blender requires some extensions to be available otherwise Blender cannot start. Other extensions are optional.